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True Cost of Ownership

Build vs. Buy Calculator

Competitive Intelligence Platform — 3-Year TCO with US/EU big-tech loaded cost assumptions

How to use: Adjust sliders to match your team’s specific assumptions. Costs use fully loaded (burdened) rates including benefits, overhead, and equity. All calculations update in real time.
Build Internally — Assumptions Used
Buy from Vendor — Assumptions Used
Assumptions

Build Internally

Development sprint + ongoing run costs

Initial build sprint
Team size (FTEs) 20
Engineers, PM, UX, QA on the initial sprint
Build duration (weeks) 6
Time to first working prototype
Avg. loaded cost / FTE / year $230k
Blended rate across engineers, PM, UX ($230k default)
Annual run — engineering & infra
Backend / ML engineer (FTE) 0.75
At $250k / yr loaded — 0.25 = ~10 hrs/week of one engineer’s time
DevOps / platform engineer (FTE) 0.25
At $230k / yr loaded
Cloud + AI infra ($/year) $50k
LLM tokens, vector DB, storage, monitoring, alerts
Annual run — product & content ownership
Product manager (FTE) 0.30
At $220k / yr loaded
PMM / CI content owner (FTE) 0.70
At $200k / yr loaded
Support & enablement (hrs / mo) 15
At $120 / hr blended (sales ops, enablement, support)

Buy from a Vendor

Subscription + internal overhead to run the program

Vendor costs
Annual vendor subscription $120k
Enterprise CI platform license
Internal overhead (you still need people)
CI program / content owner (FTE) 0.30
At $200k / yr — still need someone running the program
Live cost preview (buy)
Vendor subscription—
CI program owner—
Year 1 Total—
Years 2 & 3 (per year)—
3-Year Total—
Results Summary
Year 1 Cost
Build—
Buy—
—
2-Year Cumulative
Build—
Buy—
—
3-Year Cumulative
Build—
Buy—
—

Cumulative Cost Over 3 Years

Year-by-year spend comparison — Build (internal) vs. Buy (vendor)

Build (internal)
Buy (vendor)

Break-even Vendor Price

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Detailed Cost Breakdown
Build — Internal TCO
Year 0 / 1 (Build Year)
Initial sprint (— FTEs x — wks)—
Backend / ML engineer—
DevOps / platform—
Cloud + AI infra—
Product manager—
PMM / CI owner—
Support & enablement—
Year 1 Total—
Ongoing (Years 2 & 3, per year)
Tech run cost—
Product & content—
Support & enablement—
Annual run—
3-Year Total TCO—
Buy — Vendor TCO
Year 1
Vendor subscription—
CI program owner—
Year 1 Total—
Ongoing (Years 2 & 3, per year)
Vendor subscription—
CI program owner—
Annual recurring—
3-Year Total TCO—

The Bottom Line

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